Franchthi Research Articles

Cooking in caves: Palaeolithic carbonised plant food remains from Franchthi and Shanidar

Research on Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer diet has focused on the consumption of animals. Evidence for the use of plant foods is comparatively limited but is rapidly expanding. The authors present an analysis of carbonised macro-remains of processed plants from Franchthi Cave in the Aegean Basin and Shanidar Cave in the north-west Zagros Mountains. Microscopic examination of the charred food remains reveals the use of pounded pulses as a common ingredient in cooked plant foods. The results are discussed in the context of the regional archaeobotanical literature, leading the authors to argue that plants with bitter and astringent tastes were key ingredients of Palaeolithic cuisines in South-west Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Searching for Neolithic sites in the Bay of Kiladha, Greece

Since the excavations at Franchthi Cave in the 1960s and 1970s, the possibility of finding a submerged Neolithic site in the Bay of Kiladha has been discussed. Initial research, based on marine geophysical survey and core sampling, brought contrasted results. Starting in 2012, new parts of the Bay were investigated, using different techniques and improved methods, such as geological-geophysical survey, further core sampling (including the finding of artefacts and anthropogenic indicators of a given date in the cores), shallow water ERT (with an adapted methodology), and underwater excavation. The combined evidence leads to a reconsideration of previous work, to the discovery of submerged structures directly off the cave, which might well be Neolithic walls, and points to the existence of two new submerged sites, one dating to the Neolithic, in the middle of the Bay, and the other to the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age I, at Lambayanna. The implications of these findings are discussed as well.

Vegetation change in southeastern Greece during the Late Pleistocene. The wood charcoal record from Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece)

The late Pleistocene and early Holocene vegetation of southeastern Greece is coming to light through the study of well-preserved wood charcoal assemblages from cave sites in the Peloponnese dating from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. New anthracological results from Klissoura Cave 1 in the Argolid are presented. These, alongside the recently published charcoal sequence from Franchthi Cave (Asouti et al., 2018) and preliminary anthracological results from Kephalari Cave are integrated in a synthetic discussion, which tracks changes in the vegetation from the late Pleistocene to the early Holocene. Specific markers of vegetation change are looked for in the anthracological record, i.e. Olea europaea, deciduous Quercus, Juniperus sp., Amygdalus, Maloideae. The charcoal sequence from Klissoura Cave 1 spans from 123 ka BP to 35 ka cal BP. The results show that, during the MIS 5e, thermophilous Olea/mesophilous deciduous Quercus woodlands prevailed in the area under the influence of warm and relatively humid conditions. Lower precipitation after MIS 5e and in the course of MIS 5 resulted in the expansion of thermophilous Olea woodlands under increasingly drier conditions. Open Amygdalus woodland expanded in the later part of MIS 5 in agreement with progressively drier and cooler conditions. Juniperus woodland prevailed at the beginning of MIS 3 while progressively warmer and more humid interstadial conditions favoured the expansion of mesophilous Quercus woodland. Drier conditions during the later part of MIS 3 would have resulted in changes in the composition of the mesophilous woodlands and another cycle of expansion of Amygdalus open vegetation. Changes in the vegetation during MIS 2 and the Lateglacial follow similar patterns according to complementary anthracological evidence from the Kephalari and Franchthi caves.

A zooarchaeological history of the Neolithic occupations at Franchthi Cave and paralia in southern Greece

The Neolithic settlement at Franchthi Cave was founded ca. 8650–8450 cal BP. It was one of the first Neolithic settlements in mainland Greece and was occupied over many phases within the regional Neolithic sequence. This zooarchaeological study examines the history of the Neolithic occupations of the site and the community’s relationship to the land and the sea. Zooarchaeological evidence shows that newcomers brought livestock and domestic plants into the area, and these formed the core of the economy throughout its long history. The caprines were intensively managed for meat throughout the cultural sequence, though secondary products such as milk and wool gained some importance toward the end. Caprine herds were sheltered in the cave, and dogs likely served as guardian animals. The settlement expanded and contracted over time and experienced variable connectivity with other Neolithic communities and regional trade networks. Given the small number of settlements in southern Greece and the rugged land separating them from one another, marine trade may have been critical for replenishing genetic variation in livestock at Franchthi.

Early ceramic styles and technologies in the Aegean and the Balkans:

Ceramics have always played a central role in defining the Neolithic period in southeastern Europe. Early Neolithic ceramic assemblages, forming techniques, clay recipes, shapes, decoration, and vessel function have been traditionally used to establish the chronology and cultural groups of a region based on a handful of purported type-sites. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on Early Neolithic pottery in Greece, highlighting how preconceptions shaped the research and interpretation of the data of not only the ceramics themselves, but also how those interpretive conclusions were projected into other aspects of Early Neolithic life, such as the gender and status of potters and the socio-functional use of pottery. The recent reevaluation of old and new absolute dates through Bayesian analysis, statistical modelling, and stratigraphic considerations has also helped to provide a more nuanced use of relative pottery chronologies. New archaeological evidence from Northern Greece as well as reevaluations of Knossos and the Franchthi Cave are highlighted.

Early ceramic styles and technologies in the Aegean and the Balkans:

Ceramics have always played a central role in defining the Neolithic period in southeastern Europe. Early Neolithic ceramic assemblages, forming techniques, clay recipes, shapes, decoration, and vessel function have been traditionally used to establish the chronology and cultural groups of a region based on a handful of purported type-sites. This paper presents a critical review of the literature on Early Neolithic pottery in Greece, highlighting how preconceptions shaped the research and interpretation of the data of not only the ceramics themselves, but also how those interpretive conclusions were projected into other aspects of Early Neolithic life, such as the gender and status of potters and the socio-functional use of pottery. The recent reevaluation of old and new absolute dates through Bayesian analysis, statistical modelling, and stratigraphic considerations has also helped to provide a more nuanced use of relative pottery chronologies. New archaeological evidence from Northern Greece as well as reevaluations of Knossos and the Franchthi Cave are highlighted.

Catherine Perlès. Ornaments and other ambiguous artifacts from Franchthi, Volume I, the Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic, excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece

Under the modest heading of a fascicle, the 15th volume of the Excavations at Franchthi Cave publication series is entitled Ornaments and Other Ambiguous Artifacts from Franchthi and is authored by Catherine Perlès. Unlike her previous studies of the knapped stone artifacts that were delivered in French, this work is written in English and will be valuable to a wide audience of specialists and students. The work at hand is one more welcome addition to the impressive series published by Indiana University Press, which is unparalleled in the archaeological literature of Stone Age Greece and southeast Europe in terms of quantity, quality and detail of publication. Thanks are due to the wise ‘Franchthi board’ who carry on the legacy of the site and its excavation in the 21st century (and perhaps to the excavator Tom Jacobsen who sends his jazzy blessings from the sky).

The impact of environmental change on Palaeolithic and Mesolithic plant use and the transition to agriculture at Franchthi Cave, Greece.

The multi-period (~38,000–6000 cal BP) site of Franchthi Cave, located in the Argolid peninsula of southern mainland Greece, is unique in the Eastern Mediterranean for preserving a long archaeological sequence extending from the Upper Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic period. In this paper, we present new anthracological (carbonized fuel wood waste) evidence from Franchthi Cave with which we reconstruct the changing ecology of woodland vegetation in its environs during the late Pleistocene and the early-mid Holocene. The integrated archaeobotanical record (charred wood and non-wood macro-remains) demonstrates that in the Lateglacial the now-submerged coastal shelf of the southern Argolid peninsula was covered by steppe grassland vegetation dominated by junipers, almonds, cereals and legumes. The rapid climatic amelioration that marked the start of the Holocene brought about the disappearance of juniper and the expansion of deciduous woodland, cereals and lentils. This woodland-grassland biome bears no analogues in the modern and historical vegetation ecology of the Aegean basin. Instead, it is directly comparable to the steppe woodland biomes exploited by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Southwest Asia, and points to the convergent evolution of late Pleistocene and early Holocene plant exploitation strategies between the two regions. Continuous sea-level rise during the early Holocene led to the gradual extinction of this unique palaeohabitat, which acted as the catalyst for the selective introduction of domesticated cereal crops at Franchthi Cave in the early 9th millennium cal BP. Our meta-analysis of the non-wood archaeobotanical data puts into question the concept of the wholesale introduction of a crop “package” by pioneer settler groups arriving from the East. It is proposed instead that selective cereal crop introduction formed part of a complex pattern of sociocultural interactions that brought together indigenous and immigrant groups into new communities.

Second Impressions: Expanding the Range of Cereals from Early Neolithic Franchthi Cave, Greece

The southern Greek archaeological site of Franchthi Cave, with occupation dating from the Upper Paleolithic, remains the only site in southern Greece that both spans the shift from foraging to farming and has produced systematically recovered plant remains associated with this important transition in human prehistory. Previously reported archaeobotanical remains from the site derive exclusively from the cave interior, as none were recovered from outside the cave on the Franchthi Cave Paralia. This article reports the first evidence for plant use in the settlement area outside the cave, as provided by five seed impressions in Early Neolithic ceramic sherds from the Paralia. Significantly, this new data expands the range of crops represented at the site during the Early Neolithic to include einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L.), pushing back its appearance at Franchthi by several centuries.

Flooding a landscape: impact of Holocene transgression on coastal sedimentology and underwater archaeology in Kiladha Bay (Greece)

Franchthi Cave, bordering Kiladha Bay, in Greece, is a key archaeological site, due to its long occupation time, from ~ 40,000 to ~ 5000 year BP. To date, no clear evidence of Neolithic human dwellings in the cave was found, supporting the assumption that Neolithic people may have built a village where there is now Kiladha Bay. During the Neolithic period/Early Holocene, wide areas of the bay were indeed emerged above sea level. Bathymetric and seismic data identified a terrace incised by a valley in ~ 1 to 2 m sediment depth. Eight sediment cores, up to 6.3-m-long, were retrieved and analysed using petrophysical, sedimentological, geochemical, and chronostratigraphic methods. The longest core extends into the exposure surface, consisting of a layer of carbonate rubble in a finer matrix, representing weathering processes. Dated organic remains place this unit at ~ 8500 cal year BP. It is overlain by stiff silty mud representing an estuarine environment. This mud is capped by reduced sediments with roots marking an exposure surface. A shell-layer, dated to ~ 6300 cal year BP, overlies this terrestrial sequence, reflecting the marine transgression. This layer occurs at 10.8 mbsl, 7.7 m deeper than the global sea level at that time, suggesting tectonic subsidence in the area. It is overlain by finer-grained marine carbonate-rich sediments. The top of the core shows traces of eutrophication, pebbles and marine shells, all likely a result of modern anthropogenic processes. These results are interpreted in the context of human occupation: the exposed surface contains pottery sherds, one dating to the Early to Middle Neolithic period, indicating that Neolithic people were present in this dynamic landscape interacting with a migrating coastline. Even if the artefacts are isolated, future investigations of the submerged landscape off Franchthi Cave might lead to the discovery of a Neolithic village, which eventually became buried under marine sediments.

Terminal Pleistocene subsistence strategies and aquatic resource use in southern Greece

In many parts of the Mediterranean Basin, the Late Glacial was a dramatic time in terms of demographic, cultural, and technological change. One region that illustrates this especially well is southern Greece, where Upper Paleolithic lifeways transitioned to the Mesolithic with the onset of the Holocene. Previous archaeological research in this area has documented an intensification of meat resources as foragers widened their diet breadth to include more low-return prey animals, eventually shifting their focus to the Mediterranean Sea. In this paper, we synthesize and expand on these previous analyses by combining new data from Kephalari Cave with two other published sites in the Argolid (Peloponnese), Franchthi Cave and Klissoura Cave 1. These three sites provide an ideal case study for examining changes in meat procurement strategies because they have overlapping Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic chronologies and are located within about 45 km of one another. We consider each of the sites within their local environmental contexts, including the contraction of the coastal plain and moving shorelines after the Last Glacial Maximum. Changes in the composition of ungulate prey track local environmental and ecological conditions. The use of low-return species supports an overall picture of resource intensification in the region over time. At Klissoura, the most inland of the three sites, small terrestrial prey increases over the course of the Upper Paleolithic, particularly in the Late Glacial, and until the site was abandoned in the Mesolithic. At both Franchthi and Kephalari, small game are abundant in all Upper Paleolithic layers, but there is no overall trend. However, fishing appears in the Upper Paleolithic (most likely the Gravettoid phase) of Kephalari and during the Epigravettian at Franchthi. Fishing increases dramatically in later layers at both sites. At Franchthi, this trend culminates in open-water fishing of large-bodied tunny in the Upper Mesolithic. Interestingly, the use of Klissoura declined at about the time that fishing became a critical part of the economy at Franchthi, and possibly Kephalari. These subsistence shifts reflect a combination of factors, including growing human populations on a regional level and local responses that included changes in mobility patterns and site use, and more diverse toolkits, as well as changes in Pleistocene shorelines that brought an additional ecosystem closer to two of the sites. These internal and external factors allowed foragers in southern Greece to successfully move into a new ecological niche at the end of the Pleistocene.

The Bay of Kiladha Project (Argolid, Greece): Bridging East and West

The project, a joint research program between the University of Geneva, under the aegis of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, and the Greek Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, aims at finding traces of prehistoric human activity in a small bay of the southern Argolid, near the Franchthi Cave, a major prehistoric site used from 40,000 years ago to 5,000 years ago. For most of these 35,000 years, because of global sea-level change in prehistory, the Bay of Kiladha was in fact a small coastal plain, where the sedentary farmers of the Neolithic period had probably their village.Research currently focuses on two parts of the bay: the Franchthi sector, close to the Cave (submerged Neolithic village) and the Lambayanna sector, just a few hundred meters to the north of Franchthi Cave (HA II fortified settlement).

Food for thought: Sub-fossil and fossil chelonian remains from Franchthi Cave and Megalopolis confirm a glacial refuge for Emys orbicularis in Peloponnesus (S. Greece)

Abstract Peloponnesus peninsula (S. Greece) shows a remarkable extant chelonian fauna that has received considerable attention from a molecular and morphological point of view. Here we present new evidence from the fossil and sub-fossil record of two important sites in the area, Franchthi Cave and Megalopolis. The archaeological material from Franchthi Cave (Upper Paleolithic – Neolithic/latest Pleistocene – early Holocene) represents food remains from small game prey of the humans that inhabited the cave. The palaeontological material from Megalopolis (Late Pleistocene) comes from old and new excavations. The studied specimens, combined with information from molecular, climatic and zoological works, provide for the first time direct evidence for the presence of the European pond turtle, Emys orbicularis, in the glacial refuge of South Greece that was hypothesized on the basis of the results of molecular investigations. We also describe other chelonian taxa present in the localities, the Hermann's tortoise Testudo hermanni and the Balkan stripe-necked terrapin Mauremys rivulata, and review previously published chelonian material from Peloponnesus.

Public Archaeology: About the Present and as a Present

The recent turn of public archaeology towards dialogue and collaboration between archaeologists and local, indigenous, or descendant communities is certainly welcome. Yet, for the most part, the focus is still on archaeological concerns. It is time to move further, pay attention to the things that matter to these communities today, and give back more than archaeological information. This article presents attempts to go precisely in such a direction in relation to the village of Kilada, a fishing community located close to the prehistoric site of Franchthi Cave in Greece.

Sea Surface Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Changes in the Aegean Sea from about 11,200 BP to Present

Archaeological excavations in two coastal sites of Greece, Ftelia on Mykonos and Cyclops Cave on Youra, have provided suitable material (charcoal/marine mollusk shell paired samples deposited simultaneously in undisturbed anthropogenic layers) to estimate regional changes of the sea surface radiocarbon reservoir effect (ΔR) in the Aegean Sea. Moreover, pre-bomb 14 C ages of marine mollusk shells of known collection date, from Piraeus and Nafplion in Greece and Smyrna in Turkey, also contributed to the marine reservoir calculation during recent years. In this article, these already published results, 10 in total, are considered and calibrated again using the latest issues of the calibration curves IntCal13 and Marine13. The same calibration data were applied to 11 more paired samples from the archaeological sites of Palamari on Skyros and Franchthi Cave in the Argolic Gulf, published here for the first time, in order to investigate the fluctuation of the reservoir ages R(t) and ΔR values in the Aegean Sea from ~11,200 BP (~13,000 cal BP) to present. Our data show that R(t) and ΔR values are not constant through time and may vary from 1220 ± 148 to –3 ± 53 yr and –451 ± 68 to 858 ± 154 14 C yr, respectively. An attempt was also made to correlate these fluctuations with eastern Mediterranean paleoenvironmental proxies and other relevant paleoceanographic data found in the literature. DOI: 10.2458/azu_rc.57.18363

Preceramic, Aceramic or Early Ceramic? The radiocarbon dated beginning of the Neolithic in the Aegean

The Pre-Pottery-Neolithic refers to a period in the Eastern Mediterranean when ceramic containers were not yet in use (although small objects made of clay were already being created). This concept, which reflects a specific and quite unique stage in the development of human history, was introduced to Aegean prehistory under the term of Preceramic during the 1950’s (e.g., in Argissa Magoula and Sesklo). Shortly thereafter, a different term, the Aceramic, was applied in the Aegean (e.g., in Knossos) for levels devoid of pottery, although ceramic products were supposedly used in the wider region. In some cases, the thin levels interpreted as Preceramic or as Aceramic contained sherds that were regarded as being intrusive from above (e.g., Argissa-Magoula, Franchthi Cave). The new sequences of radiocarbon dates allow a more precise description of this early period and thereby contribute, not least, also to the clarification of terminological issues.

Food and ornaments: Diachronic changes in the exploitation of littoral resources at Franchthi Cave (Argolid, Greece) during the Upper Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic (39,000–7000 cal BC)

The long Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sequence of Franchthi Cave is often quoted for the importance of its marine resources. The first coastal resources to be exploited, from the very beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, were ornamental shell species. Fish was captured since at least the 13th millennium cal BC, and Franchthi is well known for the episode of intense tuna fishing in the Upper Mesolithic (8th millennium cal BC). Shellfish, which include mostly gastropods, were introduced in the diet a millennium after fish, but were most intensely exploited during the Final Mesolithic (ca 7000 cal BC). With abundant marine remains and a distance to the coast that never exceeded 4 km, less than 2 km in the Mesolithic, Franchthi is thus an ideal site to study the patterns of littoral exploitation and their variations throughout the Upper Palaeolithic and the Mesolithic.The successive introduction of the various marine resources was not correlated to sea level variations and the distance from the cave to the sea. The number of remains for each category varies importantly from phase to phase. To compensate for differences in the duration of each phase and frequency of occupation, I have standardized the numbers of remains for each category of coastal resource by the volume of sediment. This reveals that fish, shellfish and ornamental species were exploited independently, with important variations in intensity of deposition along the sequence. Except for two phases of more intense fishing, the exploitation of edible marine resources remained, however, rather modest. Terrestrial resources, game and plants, appear to have been predominant in most phases of occupation and terrestrial gastropods largely supersede marine gastropods in all phases from the Late Upper Palaeolithic to the Upper Mesolithic.

Zooarchaeological Evidence for Early Neolithic Colonization at Franchthi Cave (Peloponnese, Greece)

Franchthi Cave is a cornerstone for research on the mechanisms of the forager-producer transition in the southern Balkans region. Publications on this site have documented the geological, artifactual, and macrobotanical records, but detailed information on the faunas is lacking. This zooarchaeological study focuses on the Final Mesolithic and Initial Neolithic periods and the question of whether livestock were adopted as isolated components by late Mesolithic foragers or the site was colonized by people who possessed a fully agricultural lifestyle. Because minor stratigraphic mixing may underlie earlier perceptions of a gradual inclusion of domestic animals into the diet during the Initial Neolithic occupation, we examine this question with the help of zooarchaeological and taphonomic data. Changes in taxonomic abundance, contrasting patterns of burning damage, and caprine (sheep and goat) demographic and body-size data together reveal an abrupt shift from a broad spectrum diet during the Final Mesolithic...

Sea Surface Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Changes in the Aegean Sea from about 11,200 BP to Present

Archaeological excavations in two coastal sites of Greece, Ftelia on Mykonos and Cyclops Cave on Youra, have provided suitable material (charcoal/marine mollusk shell paired samples deposited simultaneously in undisturbed anthropogenic layers) to estimate regional changes of the sea surface radiocarbon reservoir effect (ΔR) in the Aegean Sea. Moreover, pre-bomb 14C ages of marine mollusk shells of known collection date, from Piraeus and Nafplion in Greece and Smyrna in Turkey, also contributed to the marine reservoir calculation during recent years. In this article, these already published results, 10 in total, are considered and calibrated again using the latest issues of the calibration curves IntCal13 and Marine13. The same calibration data were applied to 11 more paired samples from the archaeological sites of Palamari on Skyros and Franchthi Cave in the Argolic Gulf, published here for the first time, in order to investigate the fluctuation of the reservoir ages R(t) and ΔR values in the Aegean Sea from ∼11,200 BP (∼13,000 cal BP) to present. Our data show that R(t) and ΔR values are not constant through time and may vary from 1220 ± 148 to −3 ± 53 yr and −451 ± 68 to 858 ± 154 14C yr, respectively. An attempt was also made to correlate these fluctuations with eastern Mediterranean paleo-environmental proxies and other relevant paleoceanographic data found in the literature.

THE MIDDLE–LATE NEOLITHIC TRANSITION AT KOUPHOVOUNO

The site of Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, is one of the main Neolithic sites in Laconia. It was first settled in the Middle Neolithic period and developed into a large village with remains occupying some 4–5 hectares. A joint team from the British School at Athens and the Ecole française d'Athènes carried out excavations at the site in 2001–6. There is evidence for occupation during the Bronze Age, and for an extensive Late Roman villa, but this article concentrates on the chronology of the site during the Middle and Late Neolithic phases. The evidence from stratigraphic sequences, pottery typology, seriation and Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dates is brought together to present a detailed chronological sequence covering the periodc.5800–5000bc. In particular the analysis relies on the results from two deep soundings, one excavated in Area C carried down to the natural sediments underlying the site and exposing the earliest period of occupation, and the second in Area G covering the later Middle Neolithic and much of the Late Neolithic phase. The findings from Kouphovouno are placed more generally in the context of finds from other sites in the Peloponnese and in particular in relation to the important sequence from Franchthi Cave. On the basis of the evidence it is argued that the transition from Middle Neolithic to Late Neolithic in southern Greece was not abrupt, as had previously been thought, but showed a gradual evolution. This finding has implications for our understanding of the process of transformation that southern Greece underwent in the course of the later sixth millenniumbc.